“We believe that individuals with these repetitive behaviors may be perfectionistic, meaning that they are unable to relax and to perform tasks at a normal pace,” said study author Dr. Kieron O’Connor. “They are therefore prone to frustration, impatience and dissatisfaction when they do not reach their goals.”

In other words, it’s not anxiety that nail-biters are trying to quell; it’s frustration.

The Study

To reach this conclusion, researchers studied 48 participants. Half of them were individuals who engaged in repetitive behaviors like nail-biting.

They had the participants fill out a number of surveys designed to test their organizational behavior and emotion regulation.

Subsequently, the nail-biters were identified as organizational perfectionists.As reported by Scientific American, organizational perfectionism is characterized by a tendency to over-plan, over-work and become frustrated by a lack of activity.

Nail-biting helps perfectionists feel less frustrated in the present. As you might expect, it helps them release some of that pent up energy and intention.

However, this satisfaction does not last very long as it’s quickly replaced by pain and, potentially, embarrassment.

Potential Impact of the Study

While nail-biting might seem like a relatively harmless activity, it actually has the potential to cause quite a bit of long-term damage.

According to WebMD, nail-biting can lead to infections, weakened teeth and shame-inducing deformation of the fingernails.

Those risks, along withthe prevalence of nail-biting, have made it a prime target for psychotherapists, who try to help their patients move past the behavior.

This new study has the potential to help those therapists better understand their patients and what causes their behavior.

“These findings suggest that individuals suffering from body-focused repetitive behaviors could benefit from treatments designed to reduce frustration and boredom and to modify perfectionist beliefs,”said Sarah Roberts, one of the study’s additional authors.

Do you frequently bite your nails? Would you consider yourself a perfectionist?

Even when you do achieve a goal, that success is not enough to make you happy.

You never start a project until the ‘right’ moment – which often never seems to come.

The good news is that, when managed correctly, perfectionism can actually make you an incredibly driven and talented person. Check outthis bookfrom Dr. Martin M. Antony and Dr. Richard Swinson to learn more.